Conventional shoring is made from stock steel tubing having a circular cross-section of uniform thickness. The shoring frames and accessories are typically constructed by welding or mechanical fastening. The frames are cross-braced for assembly into support towers or the like. An example of such shoring, adapted for use with extendable frames, is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,190,405, issued June 22, 1965. Upper and lower jack screws of conventional use are also shown. These are used for their levelling, form-fitting, and stripping capabilities.
Aluminum has had some increasing use in the industry, although usually limited to special application scaffolding, flying shoring, or stationery joists. Aluminum is desirable because of its light weight and non-corrosiveness; but is generally too costly.
Thus, it is an object of this invention to develop a shoring system made primarily from an extrudable lightweight material of adequate strength and yet be competitively priced, given its advantages.
A further object of the present invention is to provide extendable shoring made from aluminum or similar material and yet still be capable of essentially infinite adjustability and full-load capacity.
A still further object of the present invention is to make maximum effective use of a minimum of material to minimize weight and material costs without reducing load capacity.